Fuel Filter Change

As part of my fuel system rebuild, I decided to change the filter itself. Seeing as how I was going to have to remove it anyways to replace the fuel line between it and the fuel distributor, it seemed like a no-brainer. Plus the part was only $12.50.

Unfortunately DMC put the filter in a strange place and so changing it out is kind of a pain. The location is on the inside of the left side of the frame towards the rear of the car not far from the engine compartment. So to change it out you have to lift the car, take off the left rear tire, disconnect the fuel distributor fitting on the top, disconnect the metal hard line elbow fitting at the bottom, and remove 2 nuts and bolts that fasten the filter bracket to the inside of the frame. It wasn't terribly hard to get loose. I did have to tap on the elbow fitting with a hammer and use a little PB Blaster to get the hard line fitting loose. Oh and you better have a bowl handy to catch some gasoline when it breaks loose. Here's a picture of the filter removed.

I reused the bracket, replacing the padding with a new strip, and fastened the fuel line that runs to the distributor on my work bench. After I took this picture I had to loosen it up and re-adjust the positioning of the line relevant to the location of the fuel distributor. Then I tightened it back up.

With that completed, I mounted the new filter on back on the car and connected the hard line at the elbow. The trick here is to use 2 open-ended wrenches against each other and facing straight down. If you try to get on the back of the elbow, you'll bend the bottom of the filter a bit (like I did a little). You can work it back in the other direction to straighten it out best you can but you don't want to weaken the metal too much so be careful.

I used a little bit of Teflon tape where the elbow fits to the filter only. I did this because I noticed old tape on the threads when I removed the elbow from the old filter.

Here's a picture of how high I had to lift the car in order to get access. If you're doing this job with jacks on the ground (like me), make sure you lift the car properly and use jack stands to hold the weight.

New Floor Mats

Big props to DMCToday.com for the $50 gift certificate I won in November. I applied it to a new set of black floormats. I think it really looks good against my grey interior.

I'm still in progress on finishing the fuel system rebuild. I have a couple more lines to connect, one of which requires me to jack up the rear of the car to access the fuel filter. With hunting season coming to a close, I may not get this wrapped up until the 2nd weekend of January. More to come soon.

In the meantime, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Fuel System Rebuild Phase 2 (Cont)

Recent cold weather has slowed down my progress in the garage. Nonetheless, I did make some progress yesterday. I was able to finish cleaning all the injectors and mount the new seals on then. I also completed the new fuel line install for the frequency valve. I still have a couple of outstanding fuel lines to install. First is the line between the fuel filter and the fuel distributor. That line required my to raise the rear end of the car to gain access to the filter, which is mounted on the left-rear side of the frame. Second is the return line from the fuel distributor to the accumulator. I'm going to try and knock these out this week.

 

And here are most of the new fuel lines installed:

 

Fuel System Rebuild Phase 2 - New Parts installed

Last night I was able to check the gap on all the new plugs and get them installed. I also replaced the cap & rotor on the distributor. Finally I installed all new ignition wires. Here are some pictures. Notice the 3 ignition wires that are burnt. These were damaged during the fire. They have been replaced.

The 3 pictures above were old parts that have been replaced. Here's a pic of the new parts installed.

Progress!

Fuel System Rebuild Phase 1 (Cont)

I pulled the spark plugs and fuel injectors last night. The fuel injectors were pretty dirty on the outside with baked on buildup and crud. I'm assuming these have never been pulled before. The rubber seals that fit over the injectors had baked onto the injector although they would spin. I had to end up using pliers and a razor knife to get them off. That process took longer than expected. I'm using emory cloth to clean the outside of the injectors but leaving the inside alone after discussing with my parts vendor. Once I do the flow test in the near future, I'll determine if any need to be replaced. They're $60 each, so replacing all 6 would run me $360 plus shipping. In this pic, you can see the one I cleaned with emory cloth on the far left.

The spark plugs were very tight. I had to carefully remove them using a little WD-40 and a cheater bar. They broke loose and all the threads look ok so I'm not too worried about the threads in the head. The plugs were AC Delco brand meaning they have been replaced at some point since the car was new. These plugs are not recommended by the vendors so I'm glad they're coming out. I didn't see any evidence of problems with the old plugs. They are worn but no red flags. I numbered them to each cylinder where they were installed.

Fuel System Rebuild Phase 1

I placed the order a couple weeks back and got all the parts before Thanksgiving. I was tied up with holiday obligations so last night was my first opportunity to tear into things and start working to get it sorted.

I snapped this picture before I got started for point of reference.

  

Next I started to remove pieces for access. The air filter assembly came off. Several electrical connections were unplugged. I used masking tape and a Sharpie to label everything so I wouldn't be lost on reassembly. 

The individual fuel lines were loosened and removed. Finally the metering assembly was ready to come out. 4 bolts at the Y-pipe and 3 hex-head #5 metrics at the rear for some brackets, and the thing came loose. 

Here's the metering assembly removed. I went ahead and ordered a replacement gasket, which should be here today or tomorrow. 

Apologies for the crummy picture quality. It was a little out of focus.

Tonight and tomorrow I plan to clean the exposes pieces, pull the injectors, label and remove the spark plug wires, replace the distrubutor cap & rotor, pull the spark plugs, and gap and install the new plugs.That will leave the fuel line replacement for later in the week. Stay tuned.

State Of The Car

Well as expected I've been extremely busy as I tend to get this time of year. I've been traveling on and off over the past 3 weeks so needless to say I haven't accomplished anything on the car. It's still in the same place it was after we pushed it back in the garage at the end of September (post-fire).

This weekend with my dad's help I plan to verify my list and make sure I've got what I need to start replacing the fuel system components along with a few other items. I should have more details on that over the next week or two. I hope to get the big order for all these parts in near the end of the month.

In the mean time I wanted to share a couple of pictures of Patrick Swayze's DeLorean from back in the day. For those of you who don't know, he purchased a DeLorean back when he hit it big and was a true fan of the car. If I've already posted these before, please ignore.

Enjoy!

Back to the Future/Knight Rider Intro Mashup

Close Call Saturday

Saturday morning I needed to pull the car out of the garage to open up some space in the garage for an unrelated project. I started the car and immediately noticed it was running rough and missing. It also was hunting for an idle but in a much larger range then it's ever done before. I thought I'd let it warm up and see if the miss would disappear and the engine clear up. I pulled the car out on the driveway and let it run. It was still running rough. I went back to the engine compartment to see if I could notice anything obvious. Within 10-15 seconds I saw a spark and a flame ignite on the top of the left cylinder head (driver-side) right above cylinder #4.

The first thing I did was shut the car off. Then I panicked and grabbed a bowl that I had in the garage and ran into the house to fill it with water. I splashed most of it out trying to get it to the car. I threw what water was left in the bowl onto the flame but it didn't extinguish. At this point the flame was not any larger but was in an area where ignition wires and other fuel injector rubber lines would be compromised at any second. I knew I didn't have much more time. I quickly remember I had a Dr. Pepper in the garage and ran to my work bench. Fortunately it was still 3/4 full so I poured/splashed Dr. Pepper all over the area where the flames were. This did the trick and the fire was out. My heart rate was probably close to 170 BPM.

At this point I started to soak in what had just happened. #1, My damn car caught on fire!!. That's a first for me believe it or not. #2, With the exception of a few spark plug wires bubbling on the sheath, I don't see any noticeable damage. #3, This could have been so much worse. Had I been driving the car when this happened, I likely would have been looking at an insurance check and a lost project. #4, How in the hell did this happen?

First of all, here's a shot of where the fire occurred. If you look between the control pressure valve and the low idle speed regulator, there are 3 plug wires running to the left bank of cylinders. It was directly under these where the fire started and fortunately stayed.

Here's another picture from a different angle. It's a close up of the area. If you look closely, you can see the spark plug wires bubbled up on the bottom.

The flames were present for maybe 30 seconds tops. Even though I ran into the house and unsuccessfully tried to use a bowl and water first, the total distance traveled was maybe 25 feet at full sprint.

With the help of some neighbors and my mailman (Thanks USPS!) I pushed the car back into the garage, averting the need to start it back up to back it in and create another dangerous situation.

I spent the rest of the weekend researching, and discussing via the online forums a replacement process for the Bosch K-Jet fuel injection lines, injector seals, copper gaskets, etc. The best I can tell, this appears to be a small fuel leak at or around the #4 cylinder. It could be the injector seal itself, a banjo bolt, or a fuel line. Additionally, the best I can tell, all the current lines, seals, and so on appear to be original parts.

I updated my parts list spreadsheet and came up with approximately $440 before tax and shipping. Believe it or not, I ordered a brand new carpet set from DMC last week, so these repairs my have to wait a few weeks before I can pick up the parts. I'll certainly post an update when I get the replacement fuel injection parts and take some before and after pictures.

Price is Right DeLorean

Long time; no post. Apologies. The dog days of summer kept me away from making much progress on the car. It's been too darned hot in that garage. We're heading towards nicer weather though so stay tuned. I've got big plans for the car this fall/winter.

In the meantime, enjoy this relic from December of 1981.

My Wife's 30th B-Day Party

My wife's 30th birthday party was Saturday night July 27th. We had a live band, a catered fajita buffet, a swimming pool, and my DeLorean all involved.

Here are the car pics from the weekend. This one is driving over to my mother-in-law's house where we had the party.

Just arrived

Parked and ready for decorating

Decorated

And finally back in the garage the next day after a fun night

Yea I still don't have the rear louvre finished. I'm just not happy with the way it's progressed so far. One of these days I'll get pissed enough and finish it myself or have someone with a local body shop do it for me at a good price.

The party was a hit (80's themed of course)! Happy birthday to my awesome wife!

LED Clock

When I received my car almost a year ago now, the original LED digital clock was dead. I removed it and tried to revive it but could not with my parts and tools on hand. I read somewhere around that time that the original clocks were filled w/ gas and when the seal breaks, it dies.

The first thing I did was try and source a replacement reproduction clock. I quickly found out that none of the DMC vendors had any such thing. Then I looked around for a used working replacement. This turned up nothing, as these original clocks command a premium and are rarely removed and sold if they are still working. Then I was told that the original clocks were the same units from the S2 Lotus Esprits slightly modified to fit the DMC. I looked for one of those as well but came up empty handed.

At this point I considered what it would take to build my own. I researched a few paths and came up with a plan that would require approx $70 in parts. Around that time I found a guy in England who was building a small handful of replacement clocks for the DMC-12. His price shipped to the U.S. was $105. I quickly ordered his last one less than a week ago.

It arrived yesterday believe it or not and I installed it last night. I am extremely happy with the end result. It looks fantastic and was a perfect fit. The original clocks required a constant 12v (+) from the car's battery to hold the memory for the clock. This one uses a small Lithium Ion "coin" type battery that should last for years. All I had to connect was a ground (-) and a 12v (+) from the keyed ignition (so the clock displays when you turn on the key).

 

And if you're wondering about the 24 HR functionality, currently this is the only way it works. BUT seeing as I set all my clocks (iPhone, daily driver, etc.) to 24 HR setting anyways, this worked out perfect for me. There is a colon that blinks in between the HH and MM. It just wasn't captured in the 2 photographs above.